4,629 cases of rabbies reported in Karachi this year

World Rabies Day is observed across the globe including Pakistan on Wednesday.

The aim of the occasion was to aware the people about the timely treatment of patients that are bitten by dogs and to control the growth of the animal.

Rabies is a disease that is transmitted by the biting of dogs in Asia and Africa. The disease spreads to people via scratches, bites and saliva whereas bats are also known to be the transmitter of the disease in Americas.

World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the disease is prevalent in more than 150 countries and territories.

Main symptoms of the disease included excited behavior, hyperactivity, aerophobia and hydrophobia. The patient eventually dies after suffering from cardio-respiratory arrest.

Rabies can be prevented through vaccination. Vaccinating dogs is known to be the most cost-efficient mean of preventing the disease.

Seminars and forums are organized on World Rabies Day to create awareness about the disease.

In Karachi, this year 4629 cases of rabies were reported in Jinnah Hospital till August. Dr. Seemi Jamali, head of the hospital’s Emergency Department, said that the maximum number of rabies patients reported in the hospital in year 2015, were 6950.

The condition of the patient worsens if they fail to reach hospital in time for the treatment, the doctor said. A number of cases brought in Jinnah Hospital last year, were suffering extreme condition of the disease. In 2015 around 12 people died of the disease as they failed to get timely medical treatment of the dog bite.

Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, a government medical facility in the city, also houses dog-bite clinic in the emergency department building. The clinic serving the people of the city for last several years. The clinic provides timely medical aid to the patient and also gives them all vaccines in their follow up visits to the facility.

The patients who visit private clinics in the city have to bear expensive medical care charges. Other government hospitals only provide first aid to the dog bite patient.

Dr. Jamali criticized the recent anti-dog campaign in the city, in which more than 800 dogs were poisoned and their pictures were publicized in the media, calling it counterproductive. The animal lovers’ groups also object over it, she further said. The population of dogs grow rapidly, instead of killing them, they should be neutralized with vaccination, the doctor further said.

A framework to bring the global rabies death rate to zero by 2030, has been launched by the WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control.